Reliance Retail, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries, will kick its operations in western India by launching nine Reliance Fresh stores in Ahmedabad on Tuesday.
"Within a month, the company will open over 45 stores in Vadodara, Surat, Jamnagar, Bhavnagar and Rajkot", RIL president (corporate affairs) Parimal Nathwani said.
"The number of stores is expected to cross 180 mark within the next six to seven months after cities like Mehsana, Palanpur, Anand, Nadidad and others are covered", he added.
The first Reliance Fresh store was launched in Banjara Hills in Hyderabad in November last year and till date, the company has started 100 such stores across the country.
The stores that will be launched tomorrow will be the first in the entire Western Region and will provide fresh fruits and vegetables, grocery, dairy products and staples, said Gunender Kapur, president and CEO (foods business) Reliance Retail.
The company will be investing Rs 25,000 crore (Rs 250 billion) in creating the retail infrastructure and supply chain, Kapur said.
The infrastructure will include collection centres, air-conditioned transportation system, city processing centres and distribution centres, he added.
Reliance Retail is also planning to open over 2,000 such stores across India and has plans to expand to rural areas through Rural Business Huts.
These rural business huts are one of the various formats planned by the company in addition to the food format stores, hypermarkets, supermarkets, convenience stores and speciality stores.
These stores will have an area between 2,500 to 10,000 square feet and will cater to people from all socio-economic groups, Kapur said. Each store is targeting at about 3,000 households in a two-km radius, he said. It will also provide the local farmers with direct access to the markets, he remarked.
The fruits and vegetables will be sourced at a local level from the farmers and APMCs (Agriculture Produce Marketing Committees) by offering fair and competitive prices.
Apart from the local sourcing, products will also be sourced for the stores from national and international markets, Kapur added.